3,478A Darker Path
Part Ninety-Seven: Heroes
[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
Thursday Afternoon, June 17, 2011
PRT Department 01 Wards Base
Flechette
Wrapped in her bathrobe and drying her hair with her towel, Lily left the communal showers and headed back toward her room. It had been a long patrol, turning over metaphorical rocks and kicking in not-so-metaphorical doors, all in the name of locating Rune. A lot of criminal activity had been uncovered and turned over for the cops to deal with, but so far the ex-Empire bitch was still in the wind (so to speak).
When she'd first met Boomer, she believed him to be a little too full of himself, and he wasn't quite as cool as he considered himself to be. He turned out to be a nice guy though, and she'd picked up one or two useful tips from him. The trouble lay in his insistence on seeing the good in everyone, and with Rune that had turned out to be a fatal error.
All that aside, he'd been a good man, doing his best to be a worthwhile hero, and he hadn't deserved to be murdered like that. Or at all, really. Which meant payback was in order.
Lily had gone out on this patrol fully expecting to find Rune in the first hour, given that the major gangs should be ostracising her for what she'd done. That hadn't happened, though she'd learned more about the dim and dingy hideouts favoured by those despised by both sides of the law than she had in the last year. The second and third hours had been similarly unproductive, apart from the other human cockroaches they'd uncovered and passed on to the NYPD; the person she most fervently wanted to get her hands on continued to elude her grasp.
Still mulling over the places she'd seen and wondering exactly how many more bolt-holes there were in a city of six million people, she stepped into her room and bumped the door closed with her hip. A t-shirt and Hello Kitty sleep pants were laid out over the bed; she took two steps toward it—
"Hey."
As she spun around, her mind connected the voice with just one person, who had the ability to appear basically anywhere she wanted. By the time her eyes registered the familiar black costume, she'd already arrested the defensive motion of her hands. It didn't mean she wasn't going to yell at Atropos, just that it was going to be more of a formality than a real situation.
"Seriously, what the fuck?" she demanded, though they both knew at this point that she was only going through the motions. "I could've had a weapon in my hand. Sneaking up on me is dangerous!"
"You didn't have a weapon, and I didn't sneak up on you. Hell, I even said hi." Atropos hadn't moved from her relaxed leaning posture against the door, legs crossed at the ankle and hands in the pockets of her long-coat. "How are you doing after yesterday?"
Lily dropped the act. "Still sucks," she admitted. "I was nearly close enough to do something about it. Thanks for the save, by the way."
"You're welcome." Atropos stepped forward from the door, closing the distance. "You can ask the question, if you want."
Saying 'what question?' would've been both a waste of time and an insult to Atropos' intelligence, so Lily didn't bother. "If you knew what was going on and you could save me, why not save him too?"
Atropos held up a finger. "I can answer that, but it will lead to more questions, with answers you might not like. Are you willing to go there?"
Lily had suspected things might go this way, but she'd asked the question, and she did want to know the answer. "Sure. Hit me."
"Okay." Atropos sat down on the bed. "Let's get comfortable for this. There's three parts to this answer. First part is, I have my limits. I could've saved you or him, but not both in that time frame. Second part is, I don't do the hero thing. I don't save people. I End problems. Third part is, you're important to me, and that's why I saved you. He wasn't. Keeping up so far?"
"Yeah." Lily also sat down. Like Atropos had said, more questions were occurring to her. "What limits? I thought you could teleport anywhere."
Atropos pulled back her sleeve and showed Lily a slimline module made of black plastic, encasing her left forearm. A tap of a hidden catch opened a small panel, revealing a tiny keyboard and screen. "I got this teleporter from Leet. It works every time, but there's a cooldown period between portal jumps. I could throw you a portal, or I could throw Boomer one, but I couldn't do both at the same time." She closed the panel and slid her sleeve down again. "Next question?"
"Jesus." Lily blinked, momentarily stunned. "You're just … showing me this?"
Atropos shrugged. "Are you going to tell anyone?"
"Well, uh, no. Of course not. Um." The revelation was still throwing her for a loop, but at least she could understand more of what had happened. "Why … why didn't you just stop her from doing any of that? From killing Boomer or trying to kill me?"
"Because I'm not a hero." Atropos said the same words again, but with more emphasis this time. "Let's walk through this. Suppose I showed up on that rooftop and killed her. She wasn't in Brockton Bay. She wasn't threatening the city. People would wonder why I was going to other cities and killing people without any kind of good reason. I would be slightly less of a reliable figure than I was before."
"Well, you don't have to kill her," Lily pointed out. She was pretty sure Atropos had an answer for this too, but she wanted to hear it. "Just, you know, subdue and restrain."
"And then it would get out that I was out and about, stopping bad guys." Atropos spread her hands expressively. "Some people might ask why I wasn't doing it more often, or why I had to kill all the people I killed. Or maybe word would get around that I was hunting down the capes I chased out of the city. Whichever way it went, I don't need that crap. I'm not a hero. I don't care what they do, just so long as they don't do it in my city."
"But you saved me." Lily came back to that. "Even though I'm not in Brockton Bay. Because you care about me."
"Yes and no." Atropos raised her finger again. "I didn't save you because I care about you. I saved you because you're important to me. There's a difference." She looked at Lily's expression and sighed. "Okay, let's start from base principles here. I'm not a good person, and I'm never going to pretend to be one. But there are far worse people than me, and far worse things, and if my city is going to be nice and safe and prosperous, then I'll End anything and everything trying to stop that from happening without a second thought. Then there are those people who are important to me either physically or emotionally; those people, I will keep safe. That includes you. Do you understand now?"
"I … think so." Lily had thought she'd had a read on Atropos before. Now she had the whole book open before her, chapter and verse, and the words on the page sent a chill down her spine. She wasn't precisely scared of Atropos now, but a few of her assumptions were rearranging themselves in light of the new information. "So, uh … don't take this the wrong way, but you saving me, and all that stuff about the power of friendship … is that just because I'm useful to you?"
"Trust me, I'll never take anything you say the wrong way." Atropos's tone was such that Lily knew she was smiling. "You're right in that you're useful to me. You make my job a lot easier in a lot of ways. But I'm not keeping you alive and safe just because of that. I also think you're worth keeping around, which is not a judgement I make lightly. Plus, though this doesn't carry a huge amount of weight, I have a lot of time for the Rogues' Guild, and Spitfire would be upset if you got hurt."
"Oh." Lily wanted to ask if Atropos was pulling her leg now—with that matter-of-fact tone, it was very hard to tell—but she suspected she knew the answer. Atropos didn't go in for that kind of bullshit 'gotcha' assholery. She was a straight shooter, in every sense of the phrase. "So, um … what you were saying before, about Ending anything that gets in your way. What if a hero tried to stop you from doing something to fix the city? I mean, you've only killed villains so far … haven't you?"
"Villains or villain-adjacent," Atropos confirmed. "Not killing heroes serves several purposes. Mainly, it reduces the amount of tedious bullshit I have to wade through by giving the PRT an excuse to not come after me. Most heroes I can step around or dissuade by less lethal means. I did kill Shadow Stalker, but she was planning to put me in a coma or worse, and she ignored two warnings. Then there was Director Wilkins." She paused expectantly.
"You mentioned something about putting your shears to her eye." Lily frowned. "Can I ask why you did that?"
Atropos snorted softly. "She was trying to show off how smart she was by figuring out my secret identity, while on a video call with Director Piggot and the Chief Director. Piggot flat-out told her to drop it, but she kept going, right up until I put my arm around her throat and gave her a good hard look at the point of my shears."
"That would, um …" Lily cleared her throat. "That would certainly get my attention. What happened then?"
"The Chief Director told me that if I killed Wilkins, the PRT would have to take notice. I explained that even with my shears to her eye, Wilkins was still planning to return to the search once I backed off. I asked her what she would have me do."
"Oh. Wow. Way to put her on the spot. So … she told Wilkins not to be such a dumbass?"
Atropos chuckled. "About that, yes. With a threat of death penalty for treason thrown in for good measure."
Lily tilted her head as the pieces fell into place. "Did that have anything to do with why Wilkins is out and Piggot's running the show here now?"
"Little bit." Atropos sounded amused. "Anything else you wanted to know?"
"Not really." Lily paused as something occurred to her. "Wait, no, I do. Panacea and Tenebrae and Miss Medic. Are they on your 'important to me' list as well?"
"They are, and so's Tenebrae's sister." Atropos waited for a beat. "You'd know her online handle. Great and Terrible Aisha."
Lily did indeed know it. "Oh. Oh, right. She helped you blow up a bunch of drugs and stuff, and you got selfies with her." The signed Polaroid of Great and Terrible Aisha with Atropos' shears held up behind her head like bunny ears would never be topped, she was sure.
Atropos nodded. "And you helped me kill the Simurgh. Are people still saying, 'duck season, wabbit season'?"
A grin crept across Lily's face. "You know they are. Okay, yeah, I get it. You're not just using us and discarding us. We get something out of it too."
"That's the general idea, yes. So, about Rune." Atropos stood up.
Lily looked up at her, then stood as well. "You're going to grab her for us?"
"Nope. I already told you, I'm not a hero. I don't chase villains. I kill them after two warnings." Atropos snapped her fingers, and a folded piece of paper appeared between her fingertips. "You, however, are absolutely a hero. This should be right up your alley. So to speak."
"Wait." Lily stared at the proffered piece of paper. "Is that …" Reaching out, she gingerly took it, then unfolded it. Within, in impeccable penmanship, was an address in Queens, plus a time and date. 14:34, 6/18. "That's where she'll be, tomorrow afternoon?"
"Either that, or I'm sending you on the world's stupidest scavenger hunt." Atropos raised her chin slightly. "So, what are you going to do when you kick the door in? Kill her? Or subdue and restrain her then bring her back in for trial?"
Lily clenched her fists. "I know what I'd like to do."
"It'd be easy." Atropos put a hand on her shoulder. "And nobody would blame you, least of all me. But the next time someone pulls something like that, the temptation's right there, and it keeps getting easier. Somewhere down along that slippery slope, you'd stop seeing justifications and start looking for reasons to do it. And that isn't you. You aren't me, and you don't need to be me. Be a net positive to society and leave the Ending of assholes to me, okay?"
Lily took a deep breath, feeling the weight and gravity of Atropos' words. "Yeah. You're right. And thanks, for reminding me what heroes are for."
"Not a problem." Atropos gave her a quick side-hug. "It's people like you who give me faith that the world's still worth saving."
"All good. I—" Lily looked around, but Atropos had vanished between one word and the next. She chuckled and shook her head, then checked the note again. God damn. She just handed me Rune on a silver platter, just because she thinks I'm worth having around.
There were definitely worse situations to be in, when it came to Atropos.
Friday Afternoon, 1:55 PM
An Alley in Philadelphia
Clockblocker
"And so, we return to the scene of the crime, I guess?" Dennis knew he was being inane, but he had to say something to take his mind off the horrific scene that was constantly unfolding then repeating in front of them.
"That's one way to put it, I guess." Tenebrae gave him a moderately sympathetic look. "But it's more of a rescue mission than anything else."
"Better late than never." Miss Medic tapped the side of her helmet, and magnifying optics dropped down in front of her eyes. Dennis hadn't even known they were there; but then again, she was on the same team as Armsmaster. With the sudden lack of villains to fight, the man had taken a special interest in equipping her with the very best medical gear he could devise. "Okay, once we get him out of there, it should be pretty straightforward. Only one major artery severed. Five minutes, tops."
"Wow, dang." Shebang shook her head, but she didn't look around from where she was prepping her devices. "That'll be seriously impressive. It takes me five minutes just to get a band-aid on my finger."
"Thirty seconds to save his life." Miss Medic's tone was matter-of-fact. "Four minutes thirty seconds to make it look pretty and get some blood back into him."
"She's not actually exaggerating," Dennis felt compelled to add. "One of the ex-villains currently working for the Betterment Committee was in a wheelchair. Long-term paraplegia. Miss Medic got her legs working again in less than two hours."
Tenebrae turned to look at him. "I didn't tell you about that."
"No, but I did." Leaning against the wall with his arms folded, Assault grinned. "Battery and I were both extremely impressed."
"Wait, so you actually have villains in the Betterment Committee?" Chevalier frowned. "Isn't that a kind of a risk?"
"Less than you'd think," Tenebrae assured him. "I'm an ex-villain, and I can assure you that every one of us in Brockton Bay is there in good faith. I get to be in the Wards and take care of my sister, and they get to have a good-paying job and help fix the city. And that's not even counting the Eagletons."
"I heard about those." Shebang still hadn't looked around. "They're the Machine Army, right?"
"Robotic Americans," Assault corrected her, still grinning. Dennis thought it was funny too, but Assault seemed to get a real kick out of it. "Their citizenship got fast-tracked, probably because nobody wanted Atropos to come over there and ask why it was being held up."
"They actually made them citizens?" Chevalier's tone was strong with disbelief. "You can't be serious."
Dennis shrugged. "Well, it's not like they weren't born in the United States." He shared a high-five with Assault. "Constructed, created, whatever."
"Yes, but—"
"They're not human?" Tenebrae gave Chevalier a look that shut the older man up. "Not two hundred years ago, there were people in this country—in this city—who would've said exactly the same thing about me and Miss Medic. I have it on good authority that legislation is being drafted right now making artificial intelligences equal to humans in the eyes of the law. Thanks to Atropos, it was already the case in practice. This just gets everyone onto the same page."
"And talking about being on the same page," Shebang interrupted, standing up from the two devices, both of which now had blinking lights on top, "these two bad boys are about to rock our buddy's world. Trooper Ballinger, if you could carry my cases out of harm's way? Mouth of the alley, please."
"Certainly, ma'am." The PRT trooper picked up both cases, hefting them with an ease Dennis wouldn't have been able to match with just one case, and strode down the alley in the direction that she'd indicated.
Tenebrae made sure Miss Medic was back out of the way, shooing her along even as she tried to stop and get a glimpse of what was about to happen. Dennis didn't need urging; he was quite happy to hide behind Chevalier and Assault until Shebang's bombs went off. (He knew they weren't really bombs, but they had blinking lights and weren't really safe to be around, so it was as good a term as any.)
They were all grouped around the mouth of the alleyway when Assault turned to Chevalier. "I know this is last-minute, but how sure are we that there's nobody in the danger radius? Like squatting in either of those buildings?"
"I thought of that," the veteran hero assured him. "When we were notified that you were on the way, we went through both buildings with a fine tooth comb, and sealed every entry point afterward. Once we're done, the tech guys are going to go over every inch of the affected area to catalogue all the effects for next time."
"Okay, fine, yeah." Assault nodded. "Shebang, you may fire when ready."
"You got it, chief." Bending over the massively complicated remote in her hand, Shebang tapped in a combination of buttons, then pressed a big red one. From down the alley, Dennis heard bip … bip … bip bip bip bipbipbipbeeeeep—
Silence reigned for all of five seconds. He was opening his mouth to ask if that had been it when a brilliant flash from down the alley put indigo spots in front of his eyes despite his helmet protecting his vision, and left a taste like lemon on his tongue. Then everything in the alley started juddering and vibrating, ghosts of ancient trash cans appearing and vanishing in the same instant. The weirdest thing was how outside the alleyway the sunlight was strong and steady, while inside it strobed constantly from dark to light and back again.
And then … it stopped. The alley was quiet again, save for the sound of a man collapsing to the ground. "Go!" Assault barked, and Tenebrae darted into the alley with Miss Medic hot on his heels. Dennis came third, because if this guy was dangerous in any way, he would need to be turned into a lawn ornament post-haste.
As it turned out, there was no such need. When they got to the guy, he was lying on his back with an agonised expression on his face, trying to hold his intestines in his body. Miss Medic went to her knees beside him, a syringe popping out of her left-hand bracer. "You're going to be alright," she assured him, even as the sedative entered his veins.
When Chevalier and Shebang arrived—the dependable Trooper Ballinger was guarding the cases at the mouth of the alley—the surgery was already in full swing. Tenebrae was holding up a bag of blood and another of plasma, and while Dennis couldn't see exactly what she was doing from his angle, he could hear the scissoring sound of surgical tools extending from her bracers then retracting again.
After what seemed like forever but was probably less than the five minutes originally estimated, Miss Medic sat back on her heels and used her bracers to spray some kind of cleaning solution over her hands. "Done," she announced brightly. "He'll need a night's rest and observation because that's just common sense, and he'll be sore for the next week, but he'll make a complete recovery." She beamed up at Chevalier. "Thanks for this. It's always nice to save someone's life."
He half-smiled as he offered her a hand to stand up. "We need to be thanking you. That was the neatest bit of surgery I ever saw. And Shebang, it looks like your bombs were right on the money."
Shebang nodded self-consciously. "I thought they would be, but it's good to be right about something like that. So, uh, how many Gray Boy victims are there, anyway?"
Chevalier looked grim. "I'll have to look up the exact number, but there are more than a few."
Miss Medic took on a determined expression. "Doesn't matter. We're gonna free every last one of them, and I'll fix 'em up afterward. Because that's what heroes do."
Shebang nodded, and gave her a high-five. "Damn right."
2:00 PM
New York
Legend
Fifteen thousand feet above Manhattan Island, Keith flew steadily over the city, scanning every person he saw for any kind of resemblance to Rune. Far too many wore hats or hoodies, but he could check and reject the vast majority of pedestrians on the street. There were no fliers over any of the boroughs that he didn't already know, so she wasn't in the air.
He just didn't know where she was.
His radio earpiece clicked onto an open channel. "Sir, this is Jouster. There's something you need to see."
"Show me." He turned his eyes toward where he'd last seen Flechette and Jouster. They were both looking up into the sky, though not directly at him. In Flechette's hand was a piece of paper. Focusing in just a little gave him a handwritten note, showing a location and a time. "Interesting. Where did that come from?"
Flechette took a deep breath, audible over the comms. "Atropos gave it to me last night, sir."
That got his attention. By now, it was an article of faith within the PRT and Protectorate—as well as Cauldron—that if Atropos made a claim, it could be taken as a gold-plated guarantee. The girl had been correct far too often, and Keith couldn't actually recall when she'd been wrong about anything.
"You could have led us in that direction," he observed quietly. "Called it a hunch. We'd never know the difference, and it would've gotten you major kudos."
"I did think about it, not gonna lie," she admitted. "But Atropos gave me more than the note. She also reminded me about why people like us become heroes. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. I know that if I lied, I'd always be tempted to keep lying, just to make myself look good."
Keith knew more than a little about that, and he wondered how much of Atropos' message, delivered second-hand via Flechette, was meant for his ears. More than a little, he suspected. The girl evidently knew enough about Cauldron to be a problem if she so chose, no matter how much Doctor Mother tried to deny it.
But that was a problem for another day. "That can be a self-perpetuating trap, yes. I've seen more than one cape fall into it. It's good that you recognised it first." He paused, taking in Flechette's hopeful expression. "Would you like to be the first one through the door?"
Flechette nodded firmly. "More than anything, sir."
[A/N: Evil cliffhanger is evil. Mwahahaha.]
End of Part Ninety-Seven